Hopefully you’ve already at least started putting together a survival team to face a crisis.
But what’s the right number of people you should ask to join you?
Well, just as big family gatherings can uproot old feuds and different views (like your sister-in-law’s drunken comments about gun control?) so too can having too many members on your team reveal conflicts you don’t need during a disaster.
You can’t pick your family members… but you CAN (and should) be very selective about who you have on your survival team.
Recently we talked to survival expert Charley Hogwood about just how many people need to be in your survival network and here’s what he had to say…
When you’re just starting out building a survival network, the best number of people to start with is actually… whatever you have.
Whatever you can manage to get together at first is all you’ve got to work with.
Once your network grows some, though, you’ll have the ability to pick and choose.
When that happens, you’ll find that “too many” is just as big a problem, if not a bigger one, than “too few.”
The Ideal Number For Your Survival Team…
You want enough people in your group that all the skill sets you need are represented, but let’s face it… too many people can create problems, power conflicts, or just the need to stockpile so many supplies that the group is unworkable.
The ideal number for a survival team is between 5 and 7 people.
That’s about the maximum number who can be effectively managed by a single leader to accomplish a task.
Sure, you can grow as time goes on (and skills become better developed), but remember that family members do count depending on your group format or design.
So now ask yourself: How are you laid out?
Is everyone in a central compound, or are they clustered in a neighborhood situation?
Is it something else?
“What Type Of People Should I Have On My Survival Team?”
The people who will help you survive all have skills, so you’ve got to select members for the skills your group needs following your initial survival team planning.
Your group members should have the skills to touch on the eight main areas of survival.
These are…
- food
- water
- shelter
- safety
- security
- energy
- communication
- transportation.
So, in order to get started, look for someone who has good medical experience.
You also want mechanically inclined people, and you want fighters, preferably ex-military.
People with hunting experience can also fill that role, because that provides both security and food.
Additionally, you need someone who can help with food production, including gardeners and livestock handlers.
And you want scavengers who can find things and fill the role of gatherer within the survival group.
If you have that core membership and skill set, you’re off to a great start.
Remember that all these people should cross-train together.
That way, no one person is too valuable to the group to be lost or replaced.
